In awarding its highest honor to the College’s original founders, the Sisters of Notre Dame, Notre Dame College recognized the congregation with the 2013 Notre Dame College Medal and a video tribute.

Superior General Sr. Mary Kristin Battles, SND, leader of the international congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, and Chardon, Ohio, Provincial Superior Sr. Margaret M. Gorman, SND, accepted the medal on behalf of the Sisters of Notre Dame during the campus ceremony.

Battles was joined by the international congregation’s Assistant General Sr. Mary Shauna Bankemper, SND. The two lead the congregation of more than 2,000 who minister in 19 countries on five continents from headquarters in Rome.

About 50 of the nearly 200 Sisters of Notre Dame from the Chardon Province also were present at the medal dinner.

The Sisters of Notre Dame are an international congregation that began in Coesfeld, Germany, in 1850. Their mission is education in all forms, especially to those who are poor and marginalized.

In addition to working as administrators and educators in elementary schools, high schools and colleges and with adult education and literacy training programs, the Sisters are prolific writers related to catechesis, plan programs for adult faith formation and spiritual development, counsel parishioners and coordinate evangelization programs.

The congregation also administers a home for children whose families are in crisis, works in a women’s shelter, counsels persons with mental illness, engages in prison ministry, serves in hospitals and hospices and aids sick and elderly persons.

Among other humanitarian and social justice efforts, the Sisters also help ensure clean water for small villages throughout Asia and Africa and are involved in the movement to end human trafficking locally and abroad.

In 1922, the Sisters of Notre Dame founded the College as a Catholic, four-year, liberal arts institution for women, adding postsecondary education to their already established ministry network of one academy, seven high schools and 25 parochial schools created in the Cleveland area.

The Notre Dame Medal is awarded annually to an alumnus or alumna, friend of the College or civic leader in the Greater Cleveland community who exemplifies the values of the College. Recipients must demonstrate personal, professional and global responsibility through community service.

The Sisters of Notre Dame are the sixth recipient of the Notre Dame College Medal, which was first awarded in 2008 to civic leader Sam Miller. The 2009 medal was presented to the Most Reverend Anthony M. Pilla, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Cleveland; the 2010 award to Anthony C. and Donna Kelly Rego, the first couple to receive the medal for their philanthropy and community service; the 2011 medal to the late philanthropist and civic leader Carl D. Glickman; and the 2012 honor to civic and community activist Beth E. Mooney.